Location, Location, Appreciation: Where Home Buyers Thrived

When it comes to purchasing a home, timing is everything. Some recent buyers got extraordinarily lucky, and the right time for them to become homeowners coincided with the lowest point in the market since the housing crash.

Zillow analyzed cities with populations over 50,000 and found the luckiest home buyers in America — those who bought in the right place at the right time and have now seen the highest appreciation growth on their homes. (The analysis tracked home purchases beginning in January 2006).

Here are where the luckiest home buyers in America live and when they purchased their homes: